Feeding mechanism

ABSTRACT

A feeder mechanism for feeding stock items such as sheets of paper, cards, manifolds, stuffed envelopes, etc. and comprising a magazine, a metering roller assembly, and a transition fanning device extending from the magazine to the metering roller assembly which delivers the stock items into an aligner from which the items issue into an associated mechanism such as an imprinter, slitter, perforator, etc. in desired progression.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Edward S. Godlewski 531 Walnut St., Des Plaines, 111. 60016 [21] Appl. No. 763,820 [22] Filed Sept. 30, 1968 [45] Patented Oct. 12, 1971 [54] FEEDING MECHANISM 14 Claims, 9 Drawing Figs. I

[52] US. Cl 271/37, 271/52 [51] Int. Cl B65h 1/08 [50] Field of Search 271/34, 35,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,108,799 2/1938 Davidson 271/39 X 2,133,726 10/1938 Staude 271/39 2,198,067 4/1940 Staude 271/39 UX 2,892,629 6/1959 Osgood, Jr. et al. 271/39 3/1962 Stoothoff 271/36 X 3,059,922 10/1962 Marshall... 271/36 3,291,481 12/1966 Godlewski 271/39 X 3,288,461 11/1966 Smith I 271/41 X OTHER REFERENCES Herring IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 5, No. 8, pages 21,22,23,January, 1963 271/34 Primary Examiner-Gerald M. Forlenza Assistant Examiner-Robert J. Spar Att0rney1ohn J. Kowalik mechanism such as an imprinter, slitter, perforator, etc. in

desired progression.

7. ii 133 134 3 4 i f [I i n9 PATENTEUum 12 ISII SHEET 10F 4 mt lml nlr II I Q9 Q9 ME Inventor Edward S .i dlewski- Attorney 8,612,513 SHEET 20F 4 m 0; m 03 m H nmmm///////////// ///V/// Attorney PATENTEUucr 12 [SH in 5 v m E E mm m mm E 8 N N mm mm mm 4 WE? WK 1 mm TNMNWVWWY mm VV//////////////////Z/ /////////A/6//////A Inventor Ed word 8. God lewski TMNMMMM PATENTEnnm 12 I9?! 3,612,513

SHEET 3 OF 4 Inventor Edward S. Godlewski Attorney FEEDING MECHANISM Prior art devices have limitations in the feeding of certain stock, and further such stock must be oriented in a particular manner and the feed generally is slow. In certain applications such stock, for example, such as stuffed envelopes have had to be jogged by the operators to provide a uniform edge for presentation to the feeder otherwise the feeder would jam. This is expensive and also time-consuming. Most devices are extremely sensitive to variations in thickness of the stock and its texture which may be glossy or even metallic. Other difficulties arise when an attempt is made to feed the open side of the fold. Minute and tedious adjustments are required which must be made by inexperienced personnel. Frequently even afier such adjustments the feeding is erratic, double or multiple feed, or the device will not feed at all.

A general object of the invention is to provide a simple and effective feeder which with minimal adjustment will accurately feed stock of various texture, shape, orientation and thickness without the necessity for excessive care in loading the magazine.

A further object is to provide in a feeder a novel and uniquely effective manner whichv effectively separates the stock items imbricately for presentation of the metering means one by one.

1 Another object is to provide a novel feeder which will accurately feed such stock items at a rapid rate of thousands of inch items per hour.

A more specific object is to provide a feeder which comprises a tray for holding the stock shingle fashion, the stock descending edgewise from the tray onto a fanning device which comprises one or more impositively driven thin belts which frictionally engage the lower edges of succeeding items and sequentially separate such items prior to presentation of such items to the metering means whereby the speed of feeding is greatly increased over previous devices of this general class and accuracy is assured.

The invention comprehends the provision of means for floatingly supporting the belts in such manner that only an extremely light pressure is applied to the supported items sufficient to fan them apart but insufficient to feed the same of themselves into the metering device while a preceding item is passing through such metering device.

Another feature of the invention resides in providing an impositive drive for the belts which are supported on pulleys made of slippery material having a very low coefficient of friction such as Delvin wherein the belts ride in deep grooves in the pulleys and the flanges of the pulleys lightly engage the metering roller assembly and are driven thereby when the metering rollers are not occupied by an item being metered and wherein the pulley flanges have a sliding rolling engagement with the item being metered at the time it is in the metering roll assembly, these pulleys also having a sliding engagement with the belts which may be of rubberized fabric or the like.

The invention also envisions having the belts coated or formed of slippery material such as Telflon.

Another object is to provide a feeder with a novel aligning conveyor which is adapted to move the item laterally against an aligning surface while moving it in its direction of exit from the metering and pullout rollers to a receiving mechanism.

A still further object is to provide a device having a pulloutroller assembly which is adapted to be adjusted to position of its bite to the metering roller assembly and additionally to control the grasping force or pressure against the stock items.

These and other objects and advantages inherent in and encompassed by the invention will become more apparent from the specification and the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the novel feeding device with the tray removed to clarify the structure;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken essentially on line 2- 2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an axial sectional view of the device taken substantially on line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken substantially on line 4-4 of FIG. '1;

- FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view taken substantially on line 5-5 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a rear view of the structure of FIG. 4 taken substantially on line 6-6 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged top plan view of the pullout assembly taken essentially on line 7--7 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged sectional view of the aligning mechanism taken on line 88 of FIG. 1; and,

FIG. 9 is an enlarged sectional view of a brake taken on line 9--9 of FIG. 1 showing the braking mechanism.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The feeder generally designated 1 comprises a frame structure 2 comprising a pair of laterally spaced side plates 3 and 4 interconnecting braces 5 and 6.

A magazine in the form of a tray 7 is supported from the side plates 3 and 4 and comprise a pair laterally spaced sidewalls 8 and 9 and a bottom 10 which at its upper rear extremity 11 is adjustably supported by an extensible rod 12 which is connected at its lower end to a base frame 13 to which the side supports or plates 3 and 4 are suitably attached.

At the lower discharge'end 14 of the tray it is pivotally supported on pivots l5, 16 to respective side plates and the pivots are vertically adjustable in slots l7, 18 in these plates to position the discharge area of the tray to the intake or receiving end of the combination fanner and conveyor generally designated 20.

The fanner 20 of the present design comprises a support block 21 which at each end is connected to guide rods 22, 22 which extend through guide apertures 23, 23 in a pivot block 24 which has a horizontal aperture 25 admitting the connecting rod 5 therethrough. The rod 5 has an axial slot 29 therein into which extend locking screws 26, 26 threaded into arms 27, 27 of an anchor structure 28. One arm 27 has an adjusting screw 30 threaded therethrough which has its end 31 abutting upstanding tab 32 on the pivot block 24 for adjustably limiting upward pivotal movement of the pivot block and assembly mounted thereon opposing the spring bias exerted by a tension spring 33 which has its lower end hooked to an eye 34 connected to the back side of the block 21 intermediate its ends. The upper end of spring 33 is connected to an adjusting screw 340 which is mounted through a cross brace 35 interconnecting the upper ends of the anchor arms 27, 27.

The block 21 is adjusted lengthwise of rods 22, 22 by an adjusting screw 37 which at one end is rotatably connected to a medial portion of block 21 and at its other end is passed through an aperture 38 in pivot block 24 and has a knurled adjusting knob 39 and a set nut 40 threaded thereon which is adapted to lock as at 41 against the back side of the block 24.

At each end of block 21 there is provided an aperture 42 which receives the shank portion 43 of a pin extending through a transverse aperture 44 of a pivot or balance beam 45 intermediate the ends thereof. Each pin has a head 46 which opposes the external side 47 of the related beam (FIG. 5). The beam is provided at its ends with transverse mounting pins 48, 49 which rotatably mount on substantially horizontal axes a pair of pulleys 50, 51 which have peripheral grooves 52, 53 about which a belt 54 is trained.

The belt may be of rubber impregnated fabric with a smooth external surface 55 to provide a low coefficient of friction and a cogged internal formation of limited surface area which rides on cylindrical smooth groove surfaces 56 of the pulley grooves as best seen in FIG. 3 to obtain a sliding, impositive drive. The belts may be made of "Teflon" or any other material having a low coefficient of friction. It is however preferred that the belts be as heretofore described and that the pulleys 50, 51 be made of material having a low coefficient of friction. One such material found useful is sold under the trademark Delrin which is an acytil resin and more particularly a polyoxymethylene and is more adequately described in US. Pat No. 2,768,944. The material possesses high impact strength and a low coefficient of friction so that as best seen in FIGS. 2 and 3 the flanges 58, 59 of pulley 51 has sliding and rolling engagement with either the metering roller 60 as seen in FIG. 2 or with the sheet of paper 70 as seen in FIG. 3. This is one of the important characteristics of the fanner as hereinafter explained.

Each balance or libratory beam 45 is biased lightly upwardly at the delivery end 62 of the fanner by a torsion spring 63 which has a coil portion 64 sleeved on the shank 43 of the related pin between the related end of block 21 and the interior side 65 of the associated beam 45 and has a downwardly biased arm 66 with a hook end 66' entering into any of a series of anchor apertures 67, 67 in the beam portion 68. The other end of each spring 63 is hooked into an aperture 69 in the adjacent end of the block 21. Of course, other spring arrangements are pomible such as tension springs stretched between end portion 68 of beams 45 and rods 22.

The items 70 descending gravitationally along the tray bottom are arranged imbricately as seen and exit edgewise onto the receiving ends 700 of the belts 54. The engagement of edges 71 with the top side 55 of the upper run 72 of each belt 54 is slight and of magnitude sufficient only to peel each sheet from the succeeding sheet as best seen in FIG. 4 as each belt is caused to move incrementally through engagement of the flanges 58, 59 of the pulleys 51 either with the metering roller 60 or with the bottom side 73 of the sheet of material 70 passing beneath the metering roller. It will be noted that as soon as the sheet 70 which immediately succeeds the sheet 70 passing through the metering station 74 including roller assembly 60, engages the stationary retard 75, its resistance to movement will be translated to the succeeding sheets and the pulleys 51 will either stop and have sliding engagement with the sheet in the metering means or the pulleys 51 will roll and slip within the belts.

As best seen in FIG. the retard 75 is preferably a smooth surfaced cylinder of hard rubber like material fixed to a stationary shaft 76 which is fastened at opposite ends as by screws 77, 77 to the legs 78, 78 of a U-shaped bracket 79 which has a base portion 80 secured as by a bolt 81 threaded into the block 21. The retard is flanked by coaxially arranged rotatable soft sponge sequential advancing rollers or discs 82, 82 in an arrangement and in function such as described and claimed in US. Pat. No. 3,291,481, the rollers 82 being journaled on shaft 76.

As best seen in FIG. 4 each sheet 70 is brought by the fanning device to the retard 75 and deflects the two advancing rollers, which are of very low durometer, which slide over the engaging edge 71 of the next succeeding sheet 70 while a preceding sheet is moving through the metering means.

The metering means comprises a roller assembly having discs and cylinders of about 50 durometer and includes preferably, but not necessarily, a pair of end discs 83 and an intervening disc 84 of polyeurathane and cylinders 85, 85 of elastomer such as synthetic or natural rubber. These discs and cylinders are suitably keyed to a drive shaft 87 which is journaled in bearings 88, 89 mounted on the side plates 3 and 4.

The shaft 87 is connected by means of an electric one-way clutch, which obtains its signal source from the receiving mechanism to a gear 90 of a power train 91 which is driven from a power source such as a motor 92.

The gear train is connected to a countershaft 93 joumaled on bearings 94, 95 from side plates 3 and 4. Countershaft 93 drives a gear 96 which drives a reversing gear 97 which drives a gear 98 mounted on and driving a pullout roller shaft 99 which is joumaled on bearings 100, 101 from side plates 3 and 4.

As best seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, the pullout-roller shaft 93 is connected with rollers 102 which receive the items on top thereof and spaced from the metering roller a distance less than the length of the items therebetween.

The pullout-roller cooperates with a companion holddown roller 104 (FIGS. 5 and 6) which is freely rotatable on a shaft 105 carried by the arms 106, 106 of a U-bracket 107 which has its base 108 rotatably connected to one end of an adjusting screw 110 which is threaded through a pivot block 112 and adjusted by rotation of a knob 113 on screw 110 and locked by the locking nut 114 threaded on screw 110 and adapted to be tightened against the block 112. Bracket 107 is connected to guide rods 114' which slide through apertures 115, 115 in pivot block 112. Pivot block 112 has a horizontal aperture 116 which admits support rod 6' therethrough on which are mounted anchor arms 117, 117 secured in position by screws 118 threaded therethrough into an axial slot 119 in the rod 6'. Block 112 has an arm 120 which abuts an end ofa shank 121 of an adjusting screw 122 threaded through one of the anchor arms 117. Screw 122 adjusts the lower limit of the position of the holddown roller 104 to which position it is urged by a downwardly pulling tension spring 123 having its upper end hooked to the base 108 and its lower end is adjustably connected by a bolt and nut assembly 124 to a cross brace 125 interconnecting the lower ends of the anchor arms 1 17.

The shaft 105 as well as arms 126, 126 are connected to the arms 106, 106 of the brackets 107 by bolts 108', the other ends of arms 126 being connected to a shaft 128 extending therebetween and rotatably mounting an auxiliary holddown roller 129 which cooperates with a secondary and conveying guide roller 130 which is carried on a shaft 99 on bearings mounted on the plates 3 and 4. Roller 130 is driven from shaft 93 which drives pullout roller 102.

The upper ends of the anchor arms 117 are interconnected by a rod 133 which may carry through transverse aperture therein a support rod 134 which has a soft sponge wheel 135 mounted on its distal end for rolling contact with the top sides of the sheets 70 in the magazine to hold them flat and down. The position of the rod 134 and wheel 135 is adjusted by means of a set screw 136 threaded into rod 133 and engaging rod 134.

The sheets 70 exiting from the pullout rollers travel on a support table 137 constituted in the present instance of a plurality of laterally spaced generally parallel beams 138 which are interconnected by crossmember 139 and 140 and are journaled on the pullout roller shaft 99. The beams 138 have horizontal upper edges 142, 143 which are coplanar with the upper edge 144 of a support bar 145 of an aligner generally designated 146, the bar 145 being carried by an angle iron from the cross brace 139 and is laterally adjustable therewith on the brace 139 as well as shaft 99 to position the stock in registry at any desired position on the table.

The bar 145 has a groove 148 which is laterally angled and converges in a delivery direction with the upright edge 149 of a guide flange 150 which is disposed normal to the parallel pullout and metering roller shafts.

The top run 152 of a conveyor belt 153 runs in the groove 148 which is angled therewith to the guide surface 149 at an angle of about 25?, the belt 153 being trained about a pulley 154 (FIG. 1) which has a shaft 155 mounted at a complementary angle to a pair of furcations 156, 157 on the distal end 158 of the support bar 145. The return run 159 of the belt 153 runs beneath bar 145 and continues about a conical face 160 of a cone pulley 161 which is sleeved on the pullout shaft 99 and releasably connected thereto by a set screw 162 so that the cone 161 may be shifted laterally with the remainder of the aligner assembly.

The guide flange 150 is connected to the base 145 by screws 163. A top plate 164 is connected to the upper edge of flange 150 and overlaps the bar 145 and upper run 152 of belt 153 and defines an item-accommodation or slot 165 space therewith which has a lateral opening 166 in a side remote from flange 150 which admits the sheets 70 therewith. A series of round openings 168 are provided in the plate 164 in vertical alignment with the belt and these receive close fitting spheres 169 which are adapted to ride upon the items 70 as seen in FIG. 8 and press it to the belt run 152 which in addition to moving the sheet 70 translationally in a delivery direction also shifts the sheet 70 bringing its edge 170 against the guide surface 149. The balls or spheres 169 are held in retainment by an overlying rod 172 secured to anchors 174, 176 projecting upwardly from plate 164.

In operation the sheets 70 issue edgewise from the magazine onto the fanning belts 54 at their ends 70a. The belts peel each sheet off the remaining pile and separate them as seen in FIG. 2 and advance them one-by-one to the retard 75 against the advancing rollers 82, 82 which then carry the sheet over the retard into the nip 177 between the retard and the metering roller assembly 60, the rollers 82 being driven by the metering roller 60 but being extremely soft will not advance a second sheet before the one in the metering roller is exited. The drive of the fanner belts is impositive which also precludes driving the belts 54 when the metering means is occupied and the belts are adequately loaded. The sheets feed into the pullout rollers 102, 104 which run continuously and overrun the mete'ring roller which is braked by a braking clamp (FIG. 9) 179 which is carried by a stub shaft 180 on the side plate 4, the clamp 179 having jaws 181, 182 which are spring loaded by the spring and screw assembly 183 which adjustably closes the jaws thus grasping the shaft 87 to restrict the shaft 87 from freely overrunning since it is connected to the drive by the one way or overrunning clutch 185 and its inertia would carry it beyond the driving range of the impulse carried to the clutch. Each item 70 is passed between the helper rollers 129, 130 which discharges the item onto the table 137 with the edge 170 of the item entered into the slot 165 through opening 166 between the spheres 169 and to run 152 of the aligner belt 153.

The sheets move laterally until edge 170 engages edge 149 while the sheet is moved in its delivery direction in registry with the receiving mechanism.

It will be understood that the pullout rollers run continuously and that the metering roller runs intermittently for a period preset by the signal source to the metering roller and the metering roller has a controlled amount of overrun as governed by the brake which is sufficient to drive the advance discs 82 to enter the succeeding item into the nip 177 between the retard and the metering roller which is spaced a distance slightly less than the thickness of the item 70.

The adjustment of the retard and in fact the entire combined fanner and conveying assembly is accomplished by the screw 37 and the vertical position is determined by the position of adjusting screw 30 which causes the retard and the entire assembly carried on block 21 to swing up or down. Therefore the extent and position of the nip 177 is determined for optimum operation. The upward pressure of the assembly carried from block 21 is governed by the tension load exerted by the spring 33. Thus an accurate adjustment can be easily made. The spring load of each torsion spring 63 is preferably sufficient to support the articles thereon across the balance pivot. The upper runs 72 of belts 55 are prevented from sagging by the supports 200 carried by each pin on the shanks 43 thereof, the supports serving as brakes to the belts.

I claim:

1. in a feeder having a frame, a magazine thereon having a bottom inclined surface for supporting a stack of stock items imbricately arranged thereon and having a flower discharge region from which said items discharge from the top of the stack, metering roller means mounted on the frame in spaced relation to said discharge region, a support assembly mounted on the frame for pivotal movement about a generally horizontal axis, means yieldable biasing the support assembly upwardly about said axis, retard means carried on said support assembly in underposed relation to said metering roller means, means for adjusting the upward swinging movement of said support assembly and thereby setting the position of the retard means to said roller means to define an intake nip therewith compatible with the thickness of said items conveying means extending from said support discharge region to said roller means and pivotally carried from said support assembly for vertical swinging movement therewith, means for biasing said conveying means into engagement with said roller means, said conveying means swingable toward and away from said roller means independently of said support assembly for intermittent driving engagement thereby and having an extent to support a plurality of such items thereon issuing from said discharge region and operative upon movement to separate said items thereon for individual presentation to said metering means.

2. The invention according to claim 1 and auxiliary advancing roller means mounted on said support assembly and defining an intake nip with said roller means and operative to grasp each successive item delivered thereto by said conveying means and pull the same into said nip between the retard means and roller means preparatory to actuation of the roller means for delivery thereof to associated mechanism.

3. The invention according to claim 2 and said conveying means comprising rigid element means pivotally supported intermediate its ends on the support assembly in an area between said discharge region and said metering roller means, belt means movably supported on the rigid means, and spring means reactively disposed between the rigid means and the support assembly and urging said belt means at one end toward said metering roller means and at the other end downwardly from said discharge region thereadjacent.

4. in a feeder, means for storing items to be fed seriatim to an associated mechanism and having an outlet through which the items exit, metering means comprising roller means for delivering the items to such associated mechanism, and combined fanning and conveying means operatively intervening between said outlet and said metering means and comprising means providing a surface having an extent for simultaneously accepting a plurality of such items imbricately issuing through said outlet edgewise onto said surface, and means for intermittently driving said combined means through said metering means for separating said items from each other at the edges engaging said surface and advancing such items deposited thereon seriatim to said metering means, said combined means disposed to hold said times in stripping position by said metering means and biased into engagement with the roller means for driving thereby during a period between the exit of one item from therebetween and the entry of a subsequent item therebetween.

5. The invention according to claim 4 and said combined means comprising incrementally movable belt means providing said surface, and means yieldably supporting and thereby biasing said belt means into said driven relation by said metering means.

6. The invention according to claim 41 and said combined means comprising a plurality of belts having advance runs extending from said outlet to said metering means, and said advance runs having delivery ends underposed with respect to said metering means, and means biasing the advance runs of the belts toward the roller means into driven engagement thereby.

7. in a feeder, means for storing items to be fed seriatim to an associated mechanism and having an outlet through which the item exit, metering means for delivering the items to such associated mechanism, and combined fanning and conveying means operatively intervening between said outlet and said metering means and comprising means providing a surface having an extent for accepting a plurality of such items for the outlet, means for imbricately issuing said items through said outlet edgewise onto said surface, means for impositively driving said means providing said surface concurrently with the operation of said metering means for separating said items from each other at the edges engaging said surface and advancing such items deposited thereon seriatim toward said metering means, said surface means disposed to hold said items in cooperative position to said metering means, and retard means disposed in opposing relation to said metering means, said metering means comprising a roller assembly, and advancing roller means for sofl elastomeric material having rolling contact with said roller assembly and operative in conjunction with said combined fanning and conveying means to support on an axis generally parallel to said roller assembly, a pulley rotatably mounted on each end of each beam, a belt trained about the pulleys mounted on each beam, each belt having a delivery end underposed with respect to the roller assembly, means biasing each beam in a direction urging said delivery end of the belts toward the roller assembly for engagement therewith and during occupancy of an item between the roller asembly and the belts, said belts engaging said items.

9. The invention according to claim 4 wherein said storing means comprises a tray having an inclined bottom with a lower discharge edge, said combined means comprising a plurality of laterally spaced belts and means pivotally supporting them on an axis transverse to the belts, each belt having a top run extending from said discharge edge in intercepting relation to items discharged from the tray and having delivery ends disposed proximate to said metering means, retard means disposed between said delivery ends of said belts and defining an intake nip with said metering means for receiving items delivered by said belts thereto, and means biasing said belts toward said metering means at the delivery ends of said belts for cooperative association therewith.

10. The invention according to claim 9 and a pair of soft discs extending radially beyond said retard means and rotatably supported thereadjacent and disposed in intercepting relation to items delivered against said retard means and deformable to accommodate engagement of said items with said retard means, means for selectively intermittently driving said roller means for a period to withdraw an item from said combined means and discharge the same from said roller means and having a period of overrun for driving said discs to position the succeeding item in said nip, and means for braking said roller means to limit the extent of overrun.

11. The invention according to claim 4 and auxiliary advancing means having rolling contact with said roller means and operative in conjunction with said combined means to advance said items to said roller means.

12. The invention according to claim 4 and said combined means comprising a support structure, a movable belt assembly pivoted on the support structure and having a delivery end underposed with respect to said roller means and biased toward said roller means for driving engagement thereby to pull successive items to the roller means and enter them therebetween whereupon the roller means is effective to strip the item delivered thereto off the delivery end of the belt assembly, and retard means positioned in intercepting relation to successive items delivered to said roller means for holding each item succeeding the item being instantly pulled by the roller means from being pulled concurrently therewith.

13. The invention according to claim 4 and said metering means opposing said combined means, said combined means comprising belts, rotatable means supporting said belts at the delivery ends thereof, and auxiliary advancing means having rolling contact with the roller means for pulling successive items between the same and said roller means and independently supplementing feeding the items between said combined means and said roller means, said belts having a sliding rolling contact with the roller means at intervals between exit of one item therebetween and entry of a succeeding item therebetween.

14. A top feeder comprising a magazine having a lower discharge end, a metering mechanism spaced therefrom, conveying means between the discharge end of the magazine and the metering means and adapted for fanning and delivering stock items from the magazine to said metering means from a stack of such items diagonally arranged in the magazine and issuing from the top thereof onto said conveying means with their lower edges oriented toward said conveying=means, said conveying means providing a moving surface of an extent disposed in abrading relation to a plurality of such items delivered thereto along their lower edges for fanning them apart, and means for moving said items via said conveying means while maintaining such items in fanneddisposition and feeding such items edgewlse into said metenng means, and

said means providing said surface comprising endless belt means engaging said edges and movable toward said metering means, and means pivotally supporting said belt means intermediate the ends thereof, and means biasing said supporting means to engage said belt means at the delivery end thereof with said metering means for driving thereby. 

1. In a feeder having a frame, a magazine thereon having a bottom inclined surface for supporting a stack of stock items imbricately arranged thereon and having a flower discharge region from which said items discharge from the top of the stack, metering roller means mounted on the frame in spaced relation to said discharge region, a support assembly mounted on the frame for pivotal movement about a generally horizontal axis, means yieldable biasing the support assembly upwardly about said axis, retard means carried on said support assembly in underposed relation to said metering roller means, means for adjusting the upward swinging movement of said support assembly and thereby setting the position of the retard means to said roller means to define an intake nip therewith compatible with the thickness of said items conveying means extending from said support discharge region to said roller means and pivotally carried from said support assembly for vertical swinging movement therewith, means for biasing said conveying means into engagement with said roller means, said conveying means swingable toward and away from said roller means independently of said support assembly for intermittent driving engagement thereby and having an extent to support a plurality of such items thereon issuing from said discharge region and operative upon movement to separate said items thereon for individual presentation to said metering means.
 2. The invention according to claim 1 and auxiliary advancing roller means mounted on said support assembly and defining an intake nip with said roller means and operative to grasp each successive item delivered thereto by said conveying means and pull the same into said nip between the retard means and roller means preparatory to actuation of the roller means for delivery thereof to associated mechanism.
 3. The invention according to claim 2 and said conveying means comprising rigid element means pivotally supported intermediate its ends on the support assembly in an area between said discharge region and said metering roller means, belt means movably supported on the rigid means, and spring means reactively disposed between the rigid means and the support assembly and urging said belt means at one end toward said metering roller means and at the other end downwardly from said discharge region thereadjacent.
 4. In a feeder, means for storing items to be fed seriatim to an associated mechanism and having an outlet through which the items exit, metering means comprising roller means for delivering the items to such associated mechanism, and combined fanning and conveying means operatively intervening between said outlet and said metering means and comprising means providing a surface having an extent for simultaneously accepting a plurality of such items imbricately issuing through said outlet edgewise onto said surface, and means for intermittently driving said combined means through said metering means for separating said items frOm each other at the edges engaging said surface and advancing such items deposited thereon seriatim to said metering means, said combined means disposed to hold said times in stripping position by said metering means and biased into engagement with the roller means for driving thereby during a period between the exit of one item from therebetween and the entry of a subsequent item therebetween.
 5. The invention according to claim 4 and said combined means comprising incrementally movable belt means providing said surface, and means yieldably supporting and thereby biasing said belt means into said driven relation by said metering means.
 6. The invention according to claim 4 and said combined means comprising a plurality of belts having advance runs extending from said outlet to said metering means, and said advance runs having delivery ends underposed with respect to said metering means, and means biasing the advance runs of the belts toward the roller means into driven engagement thereby.
 7. In a feeder, means for storing items to be fed seriatim to an associated mechanism and having an outlet through which the item exit, metering means for delivering the items to such associated mechanism, and combined fanning and conveying means operatively intervening between said outlet and said metering means and comprising means providing a surface having an extent for accepting a plurality of such items for the outlet, means for imbricately issuing said items through said outlet edgewise onto said surface, means for impositively driving said means providing said surface concurrently with the operation of said metering means for separating said items from each other at the edges engaging said surface and advancing such items deposited thereon seriatim toward said metering means, said surface means disposed to hold said items in cooperative position to said metering means, and retard means disposed in opposing relation to said metering means, said metering means comprising a roller assembly, and advancing roller means for soft elastomeric material having rolling contact with said roller assembly and operative in conjunction with said combined fanning and conveying means to advance said items to between said metering means and said retard means.
 8. The invention according to claim 4 and said roller means comprising a roller assembly, said combined means comprising a support, a pair of laterally spaced beams pivoted to the support on an axis generally parallel to said roller assembly, a pulley rotatably mounted on each end of each beam, a belt trained about the pulleys mounted on each beam, each belt having a delivery end underposed with respect to the roller assembly, means biasing each beam in a direction urging said delivery end of the belts toward the roller assembly for engagement therewith and during occupancy of an item between the roller assembly and the belts, said belts engaging said items.
 9. The invention according to claim 4 wherein said storing means comprises a tray having an inclined bottom with a lower discharge edge, said combined means comprising a plurality of laterally spaced belts and means pivotally supporting them on an axis transverse to the belts, each belt having a top run extending from said discharge edge in intercepting relation to items discharged from the tray and having delivery ends disposed proximate to said metering means, retard means disposed between said delivery ends of said belts and defining an intake nip with said metering means for receiving items delivered by said belts thereto, and means biasing said belts toward said metering means at the delivery ends of said belts for cooperative association therewith.
 10. The invention according to claim 9 and a pair of soft discs extending radially beyond said retard means and rotatably supported thereadjacent and disposed in intercepting relation to items delivered against said retard means and deformable to accommodate engagement of said items with said retard means, means for selectIvely intermittently driving said roller means for a period to withdraw an item from said combined means and discharge the same from said roller means and having a period of overrun for driving said discs to position the succeeding item in said nip, and means for braking said roller means to limit the extent of overrun.
 11. The invention according to claim 4 and auxiliary advancing means having rolling contact with said roller means and operative in conjunction with said combined means to advance said items to said roller means.
 12. The invention according to claim 4 and said combined means comprising a support structure, a movable belt assembly pivoted on the support structure and having a delivery end underposed with respect to said roller means and biased toward said roller means for driving engagement thereby to pull successive items to the roller means and enter them therebetween whereupon the roller means is effective to strip the item delivered thereto off the delivery end of the belt assembly, and retard means positioned in intercepting relation to successive items delivered to said roller means for holding each item succeeding the item being instantly pulled by the roller means from being pulled concurrently therewith.
 13. The invention according to claim 4 and said metering means opposing said combined means, said combined means comprising belts, rotatable means supporting said belts at the delivery ends thereof, and auxiliary advancing means having rolling contact with the roller means for pulling successive items between the same and said roller means and independently supplementing feeding the items between said combined means and said roller means, said belts having a sliding rolling contact with the roller means at intervals between exit of one item therebetween and entry of a succeeding item therebetween.
 14. A top feeder comprising a magazine having a lower discharge end, a metering mechanism spaced therefrom, conveying means between the discharge end of the magazine and the metering means and adapted for fanning and delivering stock items from the magazine to said metering means from a stack of such items diagonally arranged in the magazine and issuing from the top thereof onto said conveying means with their lower edges oriented toward said conveying means, said conveying means providing a moving surface of an extent disposed in abrading relation to a plurality of such items delivered thereto along their lower edges for fanning them apart, and means for moving said items via said conveying means while maintaining such items in fanned disposition and feeding such items edgewise into said metering means, and said means providing said surface comprising endless belt means engaging said edges and movable toward said metering means, and means pivotally supporting said belt means intermediate the ends thereof, and means biasing said supporting means to engage said belt means at the delivery end thereof with said metering means for driving thereby. 